Letters: Delta kerfuffle

October 21, 2013

I am amused to read ("CDA challenges Delta Dental," Sept. 2 ADA News) that "Delta Dental's intent is to provide the best and most affordable dental benefit programs possible … ," as during my 62 years on earth (so far) I have never found "best" and "most affordable" to describe the same product or service.

Delta's further contention of being "committed to acting in the long-term best interests that balance the needs of its stakeholders, including enrollees, client groups and dentists" must be some sort of code for "our business model proposes diverting part of each benefit dollar to commissions, administrative expenses, executive salaries, profit, etc. and then convincing the ratepayers that the 65 percent left over to provide treatment somehow mystically provides a better result than the $1 that was originally available."

The sad reality is still that this travesty exists only with the full compliance of the dental profession, without whose participation the entire dental insurance industry's flawed business model cannot exist.